According to prior art, an Ethernet network in which the IP addresses (IP for “Internet Protocol”) are assigned to terminal network-elements of this Ethernet network by using the DHCP protocol (DHCP for “Dynamic Coast Configuration Protocol”) using the respective unique manufacturing identifiers thereof that are the respective MAC addresses (MAC for “Media Access Control”) thereof is known. This is how this addressing process works.
On this Ethernet network, each terminal network-element which has an Ethernet network card announces its presence on this Ethernet network during its start-up by using the DHCP protocol
An addressing server which is continuously listening for this DHCP protocol and which therefore monitors the transmission of all IP address requests by a terminal element of the Ethernet network in this DHCP protocol is configured to respond to this terminal network-element by dynamically assigning it an IP address which will become the IP address thereof and which will remain the address so long is this terminal network-element remains on this Ethernet network.
The identity of a terminal element on the Ethernet network is defined by the unique physical address thereof on this Ethernet network, which is the MAC address thereof. In order to meet the security requirements required for avoiding network malfunctions related to incorrect or random IP address assignments, the addressing server is configured so as to assign an IP address to a terminal network-element only if a security condition is met. This security condition is met if the MAC address of this terminal network-element is previously known by the addressing server which can then identify this terminal network-element on start-up thereof on the Ethernet network.
When the set of terminal elements of an Ethernet network is aggregated to form a supercomputer, and when the number of these network-elements becomes very large, then the number of MAC addresses to be collected, catalogued and managed also becomes very large. In order to operate correctly and be able to assign the required IP addresses to the terminal elements of the Ethernet network, the addressing server must then know the complete list of the set of the respective MAC addresses of the set of terminal elements of the Ethernet network. This complete knowledge calls for a dedicated, long and complex configuration of the addressing server.
During the installation of such an Ethernet network to form a supercomputer, several phases are done.
A first installation phase includes the physical installation and electrical startup of all the elements of the Ethernet network, in particular the interconnection network-elements (still called “switches”) and the terminal network-elements.
A second installation phase includes the configuration of the core of the Ethernet network including in particular the configuration of the VLAN (VLAN for “Very Large Area Network”) and the IP routing.
A third installation phase includes the IP addressing of the diverse equipment connected to the Ethernet network, where the IP addressing is done by using the DHCP protocol. In order to do that, the complete knowledge, by the addressing server, of all MAC addresses can be obtained either by execution of an automatic harvesting tool or by the direct insertion from a previously known and catalogued list of MAC addresses. The IP addressing is done by a DORA type session (DORA for “Discovery/Offer/Request/Acknowledge”) for the DHCP protocol At the end of this DORA session, the terminal element of the Ethernet network has obtained the IP address thereof allowing it to operate properly within this Ethernet network.
Additionally, during a hardware failure, for example a terminal network-element failure, the entire process of collection and management of the MAC address of the terminal network-element replacing the failed network-element must be restarted and the addressing server is reconfigured so as to incorporate this new MAC address. The number of breakdowns among the terminal elements of this Ethernet network can reach 3 to 5% of the terminal network-elements during the lifetime of this Ethernet network, which corresponds to a notable absolute number of failures because the number of terminal elements contained in this Ethernet network can quickly become very large and amount to several thousands to tens of thousands of terminal network-elements, typically between 5000 and 50,000 terminal network-elements.
Whether it is during the installation of the network or else during the maintenance of the network during hardware failures, the use of MAC addresses, while useful as unique identifiers of the network-elements, has several disadvantages
First, the process of collecting and managing these MAC addresses is very long and can become even longer as the number of elements on the network grows, which is in particular the case of a network configured for operating as a supercomputer. In particular, the MAC address discovery phase is particularly long and empirical.
Next, once different network-element types are coexisting on the network, which can frequently happen, the process of collecting and managing MAC addresses needs to be adapted for each network-element type, making this same process fairly heterogeneous and therefore more complex to implement.